


Fatherhood Fiasco

by No_Day_But_Today



Series: Single Parent AUs [2]
Category: Les Misérables (2012), Les Misérables - All Media Types, Les Misérables - Schönberg/Boublil, Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Genre: F/M, Grocery Shopping, Mistaken for Being a Parent, Mistaken for Being in a Relationship, Single Parent AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-11
Updated: 2015-07-11
Packaged: 2018-04-08 19:04:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4316178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/No_Day_But_Today/pseuds/No_Day_But_Today
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: You asked me to the store with you and your child, and now my distant relative we met thinks I'm married with a baby.<br/>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br/>" 'It’s a pleasure to meet you,' He quickly shifted his attention back to Marius. 'Why didn’t you tell me you got married?'<br/>'MARRIED?!' The blood drained from Marius’ face as Cosette turned red. "</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fatherhood Fiasco

**Author's Note:**

> This is the second installment in my Single Parent AU series. I know that these are both Les Mis based (oops), but that was not on purpose. I really just felt like Marius would be the one to get mistaken as being married and with a baby. Enjoy!

This wasn’t exactly how Marius envisioned spending his first Saturday afternoon in university. He always imagined parties, or studying, or sleeping in until three. Never in his wildest dreams did he see himself going grocery shopping with a girl he met in his poli-sci class.

“Thanks for coming shopping with us. I couldn’t find a babysitter for Henri and it’s always easier to find everything with an extra pair of hands, isn’t that right Henri?” Cosette tickled Henri’s tummy, making the baby giggle like mad. Marius shrugged,

“No problem. I didn’t really have anything planned anyways…” Cosette smiled and pulled a shopping list out of her bag.

“Okay, so we need baby food, bread, milk, eggs, cereal…” Cosette continued to list off what they needed to pick up, but Marius had stopped listening. He was still mulling over the fact that he was on an outing. With a girl. And her baby. Again, this is not in the slightest how he had been expecting to spend his time…

“So, if you can go grab the bread, milk, and eggs and meet us over in the baby section that would be great!” Marius quickly snapped back into the present.

“Oh, yeah! Sounds good!” Cosette grinned at him and headed off towards all of the baby stuff. Shit. What was he supposed to get again? Bread, milk, and… something? He knew that it started with an e. English muffins? No, that would count as bread. Expresso? No, that’s a kind of coffee, that doesn’t make sense. Eggplant? No, why the hell would she need eggplant, why would he think that? Eggs! She needed eggs! Marius jumped over to the frozen food section to pick up the milk and eggs. He muttered the list to himself to keep from, once again, forgetting anything. He reached the cases containing milk first.

Crap. He didn’t know what kind of milk she wanted, and there were at least 100 different kinds here. Did she tell him when he wasn’t listening? What if she had told him? He’d just have to guess and hope that he was lucky.

He looked over the large selection of milks before him. Well, she probably didn’t want chocolate milk or any other kind of flavored milk. Or any kind of non-dairy milk (almond milk? Oat milk? What was all of this stuff?). Well, that eliminates about half of the options. But, what percent milk does she want? He always remembered his family buying 2% milk so maybe she buys that kind too. But what size? Marius started to sweat nervously. Why was this so hard? He finally decided that a gallon would probably work.

Now, he made his way to the eggs. Dear lord, why are there so many kinds of eggs? Grade A? Grade B? Free range? What is all of this? Why are there so many kinds of eggs? As far as he knew, up until this moment, there was only one kind of egg. Turns out, he was very, very wrong. Well, he didn’t really know what free range was, so maybe he shouldn’t buy those. Grade? Well, in school A’s were always better than B’s so he should probably get Grade A eggs, right? But how many? 12? 24? A whole flat? 24 kind of seems like a lot, so he grabbed a case of 12 eggs.

Geez, Marius had no idea that shopping could be this difficult. How many varieties of basic foods could they possibly make? Apparently, a lot!

The bread isle went just about as smoothly. After debating between kinds and brands of bread, he finally settled on a store brand, whole wheat type. Wow, that took way longer than it should have.

Marius made his way towards the baby section, but he couldn’t find Cosette anywhere. Maybe she finished shopping in this section and got tired of waiting. He wandered down the main walkway, looking down every isle as he went. He finally found Cosette down in the canned food section. She was looking at different cans of vegetables when he got to her.

“Hey! Sorry I took so long, I didn’t really know what kind or size to get…”

“Oh my! I’m so sorry, I didn’t think to tell you!”

“It’s okay, I just got 2% milk, Grade A eggs, and some whole wheat bread.”

“Perfect! We’re not very picky. Thank you so much, again, for helping us out.”

“No problem! So what’s next on the list?”

* * *

 

Everything had been going pretty smoothly now that they were shopping together. They had almost everything on the list, they just had to get cereal and granola bars. Unfortunately, this is where everything started to go wrong.

They were looking at different types of Cheerios when Marius heard a voice that he had hoped to never hear again.

“Marius? Is that you?” Marius cringed and turned towards the source of the voice.

“Hello, Grandfather.” His grandfather was thinner than he was when Marius last saw him. He looked, for lack of a better word, older. Maybe weathered was a better word. Anyway, Marius hadn’t seen him look this bad since… well, ever.

“How are you, Marius? You’re in school now, aren’t you?”

“I’m fine, Grandfather. And, yes I’m in my first year at University.” Marius gritted his teeth. This was something he had hoped would never happen. He had severed every tie he had to his family years ago, or so he had thought. He was finally happy, after everything that happened. It was the first time he had felt genuinely happy since his parent’s deaths. And now, his grandfather had to show up and drag all of those unhappy memories to the surface again.

Marius must have looked just as uncomfortable as he felt, because Cosette stepped up and placed a hand on his arm.

“Marius, are you okay?” He turned towards her and forced a smile,

“Yeah, I’m fine.” He turned back towards his Grandfather, who had the widest grin on his face.

“Marius. Who is this young lady?”

“Oh, uh, Grandfather this is Cosette.” His grandfather reached out and shook Cosette’s hand.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” He quickly shifted his attention back to Marius. “Why didn’t you tell me you got married?”

“MARRIED?!” The blood drained from Marius’ face as Cosette turned red.

“No… we’re not… she’s not my…”

“Oh no, we’re not… I mean, we’re just…” The two of them continued to sputter as Marius’ Grandfather grinned even wider.

“No need to be embarrassed! You two make a beautiful couple!”

“No, sir! We’re really not-” Cosette was promptly cut off by Henri starting to fuss. She scooped him up and started to bounce him in an effort to calm him down. If it was possible, Marius’ grandfather’s grin turned into an absolute beam. He was actually beaming. Why was he beaming?!

“And you have a child! A baby Boy!”

“No, he’s not –” Marius gave up. He couldn’t convince his grandfather otherwise, so he might as well play along. He rubbed his temples for a moment. “Yes, Grandfather.”

“Wha-” Marius looked over to Cosette and cut her off with a pleading look. He seemed to say: _please play along_. Marius’ grandfather started to coo at Henri.

“Hello little one! What’s your name?” Cosette gave an awkward smile,

“Henri.”

“A beautiful name!” Marius’ grandfather glanced at his watch, “Ah, but look at the time! I really must be moving along, but I really did enjoy seeing you again, Marius. And meeting your wife and child. You all should come visit soon.”

“Of course, Grandfather. We’ll call you soon.” With that, Marius’ Grandfather headed off to the check out lanes, leaving them alone. Marius immediately turned to Cosette to apologize.

“I am so sorry! He just wouldn’t take no for an answer, I figured it would just be easier to play along. I am so, so, so, so, so sorry!” Marius turned bright red and hid his face behind his hands. Cosette just laughed.

“It’s okay, Marius. It’s really not your fault. Why don’t we finish up the shopping so he doesn’t catch us here again?”

“Please!”

* * *

 

After everything had been rung up and Cosette had paid, Marius ran out to Cosette’s car to help her load the groceries in. Cosette fastened Henri into his car seat before coming to help Marius.

“So, even though meeting your Grandfather could qualify as nightmare-ish, do you think you would come shopping with us again? You really were a big help.”

“Sure, why not? Other than my grandfather it was actually pretty fun.”


End file.
